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Congressional Republican leaders failed to advance a slimmed down year-end funding bill endorsed by President-elect Donald Trump after they scrapped a larger package he opposed that included major bipartisan healthcare legislation. The Trump-favored bill dropped major provisions imposing new restrictions on pharmacy benefit managers, partially reversing Medicare reimbursement cuts for doctors, and extending Medicare telehealth authorities. It failed in a hastily called in the GOP-led House Thursday night. (McAuliff, 12/19)

House Speaker Mike Johnson has devised a new end-of-year government funding deal that rips apart a healthcare package that would have extended Medicare telehealth provisions for two years and mandated reforms for pharmacy benefit managers. That deal is dead, a lobbyist told Fierce Healthcare. In its place is a package that cuts out PBM reform and only extends Medicare telehealth flexibilities and hospital at home waivers until March 31, 2025. The government will only be funded through Mar. 14. (Tong and Beavins, 12/19)

After Congress spent years crafting new significant pharmacy benefit manager regulations and had agreed to a substantial health care package, posts on X from Elon Musk, who’s co-leading the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, helped upend the legislation just days before it was poised to become law. ... The impasse has left a multitude of health care provisions up in the air and the broader package’s fate in question. Eased access to telehealth and hospital-at-home care, funding for community health centers, doctor pay in Medicare, measures intended to incentivize drug development for rare pediatric diseases and more hang in the balance. (Cirruzzo and Leonard, 12/19)

Â鶹ŮÓÅ Health News' 'What the Health?' Podcast: End-Of-Year Chaos On Capitol Hill

Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate successfully negotiated an enormous end-of-Congress health package, including bipartisan efforts to address prescription drug prices — only to see it blown up at the last minute after Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump applied pressure. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court accepted its first abortion-related case of the term, and the attorney general of Texas sued a doctor in New York for prescribing abortion pills to a Texas patient. (Rovner, 12/19)

The nation's 67 million Social Security recipients would continue to receive their checks even if the government closes for business. Medicare will also continue to operate, which means seniors covered by the health care plan won't have their medications or treatments impacted. That's because both Social Security and Medicare benefits are authorized by laws that don't require annual approval. (Picchi, 12/19)

Federal government shutdowns can be disruptive, with thousands of workers furloughed and most of them not getting paid on time. Taxpayers won’t get calls returned, there may be longer lines at airports during one of the busiest travel weeks of the year and many national parks will close. And yet many of the routine functions of government — things like national defense, benefit checks and mail delivery — continue as usual. (Korte, 12/19)

Â鶹ŮÓÅ Health News: Employers Press Congress To Cement Health Price Transparency Before Trump’s Return

It seems simple: Require hospitals and insurers to post their negotiated prices for most health care services and — bingo — competition follows, yielding lower costs for consumers. But nearly four years after the first Trump administration’s regulations forced hospitals to post massive amounts of pricing information online, the effect on patients’ costs is unclear. (Appleby, 12/20)

In the healthcare supply chain, "resilience" has become a ubiquitous term. It emerged as a critical focus during the COVID-19 pandemic, when hospitals and health systems struggled to procure personal protective equipment, ventilators and medications. The disruptions brought renewed attention to deep-rooted vulnerabilities in the healthcare supply chain, sparking industrywide calls for greater transparency and supplier diversification for essential products. (Murphy, 12/19)